Industry 4.0: The Future of Manufacturing
Manufacturing is changing! We are living in an era where words like automation, real time data, artificial intelligence, IoT etc. are floating in the air. Managers are leveraging on advanced technologies to create a holistic and better-connected ecosystem for meeting customer demands. This need to connect and access real time insights across processes, products and people is driving a new phase in the Industrial Revolution-Industry 4.0! The transition is revolutionizing the way a manufacturing unit performs and is slowly carving the path towards an era of Smart Factories.
Technological Revolution — A Steady March!
Industry 1.0
This period marks the beginning of an Industry culture that introduced mechanical production facilities to the world. If we trace back to an era- between late 1700s and early 1800s, manufacturing tasks were performed manually or with the help of animals. This got further churned with the use of water and steam powered engines to perform the same tasks. The introduction of water and steam as the primary source of power gave rise to the concept of mass production of commodities.
Industry 2.0
The early 20th century witnessed the 2nd industrial revolution with the introduction of steel and electricity. The revolution that was created by machines powered by electricity led to an increase in productivity and operational efficiency. Factory machinery started becoming more mobile. The process of mass production of goods became more streamlined. The introduction of electricity to run engines became a turning point in the manufacturing industry.
Industry 3.0
From electricity, arose a phase of significant developments in the field of electronics. The advances in the electronics industry spurred the third industry revolution. The automation of electronics machinery was possible with the introduction of programmable logic controllers, transistors, integrated circuits and more. There was a steady increase in the speed and accuracy of goods produced. Moreover, while the manufacturing units witnessed a rise in the hardware, there arose a need to control these devices using a software. This led to the IT boom! The revolution created by electronics and IT once again redefined the way goods were manufactured.
Industry 4.0
The need to further change the way goods are produced and redefine customer experiences led to the fourth industrial revolution. The introduction of internet and telecommunication changed the way information was exchanged. Processes that merged the physical and virtual world called ‘cyber physical systems’ were introduced in factories with innovations in the internet. Cyber Physical Systems bring the world of computation, networking and physical devices together. The boundaries between the virtual and physical worlds started getting further blurred with talks on seamless connectivity.
Today, the world has reached a point where we aren’t just talking about one or two devices connected to the internet but a possibility of having many connected. Thus, arose the concept of IoT (Internet of things). These devices when connected to the internet gives rise to data. When artificial intelligence techniques and deep neural networks are applied to these data sets, the insights gathered contribute towards making accurate business decisions. The need to make systems more connected and access information in real-time in response to the ever-increasing customer expectations has paved the path towards an age of Smart Manufacturing.
Technologies under Industry 4.0
The key factors driving the Industry 4.0 digital transformation are connectivity, automation and optimization. The full potential of the Industry 4.0 movement can be realized when several technologies are working work together:
Industrial Internet of things
The concept of Industrial IoT revolves under the possibility of connecting several manufacturing devices to the internet. These devices when connected, generates a lot of real-time factory data. The ‘actionable intelligence’ gathered helps the relevant stakeholders to make data driven business decisions.
Artificial Intelligence
Eliminating manual processing forms the basis of the new industrial revolution. The artificial intelligence technology plays a very important role in achieving this. Machine learning, deep neural network models deployed on real-time factory data produces insights that drive accurate business decisions. Moreover, the predictive insights achieved help managers to become more proactive and not reactive especially in case of major disruptions.
Automation
The need to make factories more connected arises out of the need to increase profits, enhance customer experience thereby leading towards maximum profits. In order to achieve this, automating different processes within manufacturing is a must. This can be implemented with the use of robotics or artificial Intelligence. Many industries have kicked off by automating all those repeated tasks that are performed manually.
Cloud Storage and Computing
While the term ‘cloud computing’ might sound a little complex, all of us have been using this in some way or the other. An Email is the best example of a cloud computing service used by all of us. You don’t invest in a hardware or a software. All you need is an internet connection and you are good to go. If this concept can be extended to the manufacturing industry and if managers could invest in services through the internet rather than investing in the hardware and software, there will be a significant decline in the capital expenditure and increase in manufacturing efficiency.
Autonomous Robots
This comprises of three parts: Sensors, Processors and Effectors. The sensors follow the environment and gathers data. The processors gauge the change in the data gathered and the Effectors decide how to react to the environment. This is the fundamental structure that is used to design Robots in the manufacturing industry. They have a direct impact in the manner in which tasks are performed and are mainly used to perform tasks that are repetitive and that which requires minimal human intervention.
Augmented Reality
This is a concept which brings the best of both the worlds- Virtual and Physical together. Here, objects in the physical world are enhanced with the use of images, sounds and text.
Benefits of adopting an Industry 4.0 model
Adopting the Industry 4.0 model can help to optimize the entire product life cycle and thereby bring about a significant change. This means, implementing changes in different departments including engineering, design, sales, inventory, quality assurance, customer service and more. Some of the benefits include:
Building Collaborative teams
By investing in Industry 4.0, enterprises can boost collaboration between teams, increase efficiency and minimize downtime. Using IoT based sensors, managers can have their assets connected. These assets help to generate real-time factory data. This serves as actionable intelligence for different team leads and managers to take accurate business decisions. It also helps in ensuring that the right information is passed on to the relevant teams to take appropriate measures in case of an emergency.
Being proactive, Not reactive
The assets with sensors can help generate a lot of real time factory data. This data can be used to detect problems at an early stage. The manager can therefore learn to predict disruptions and avoid major breakdowns. It will also help them to go to the root cause and avoid the same errors from occurring in the immediate future.
Real-Time Notifications
One of the most important advantages that comes with connecting your devices to the internet is real-time access to information. These real-time alerts help to provide end to end visibility on your assets, products and work force. Gaining an overall visibility helps to take real-time business decisions maximizing productivity and reducing downtime.
Enhanced Customer Experience
At the end of the day, what matters the most is how happy your customers are. All your processes, products and people are lined up to serve only one lot- YOUR CUSTOMERS. Getting digitally engaged and making your line of systems connected only helps to enhance and redefine the customer journeys. Customer demands always revolve around key factors such as time and cost efficiency, accuracy and meeting their expectations need digital backing. This remains the key motivation for Industry 4.0.
The Smart Factory: Why now?
Automation has always been a part of a manufacturer’s journey in technological evolution. However, when we refer to a ‘Smart Factory’, we are referring to an ecosystem where different people and processes are well connected. This also indicates an integration of shop floor decisions and insights with the rest of the supply chain. How does such a connected ecosystem help? It fundamentally changes processes and most importantly enhances the relationships with distributors, suppliers and customers. It would also create a system that can self-optimize performances, self-adapt and learn from novel real-time and non-real time scenarios. We have carved out some key trends that are accelerating the journey towards smart manufacturing
The Complex Supply-Chain
With globalization, the backend processes tracing from product ideation till it reaches the end-customer has become subjectively complex. Moreover, as the product goes through different stages it is subjected to customization at each level making it mandatory for manufacturers to rely on technologies that provide end to end visibility of their product.
The incredible capability of technology
The concept of internet of things, artificial intelligence, blockchain etc. has set the ball rolling to move towards a more connected ecosystem. An investment in technology that was traditionally restricted to task automation has now expanded to the likes of leveraging data to build self-learning mechanisms. Manufactureres who stick to the age-old method of production find themselves lagging in the competitive market landscape. This has left no option for many but to take baby steps towards an era of smart factories.
The Changing Consumer Buying pattern
Consumers today can reach through a wide variety of digital channels. Product availability with quick turnaround time is the need of every consumer. It is easy for customers to switch from one vendor to another depending on how their needs are met. Hence, it is absolutely essential that manufacturers innovate for customers sake.
Far more relevant in the post-Covid era
In the ore-crisis phase, the focus was more on factors such as competitive advantage, innovation, cost reduction and productivity. However, with the crisis, most of businesses are worried about three factors- Survival, Recovery and Business as Usual. Most of the manufacturers would want to get into the ‘business as usual phase’ at the earliest. With the way events unfolds before us, many managers will agree to the fact that one of the major drawbacks was ‘Real time visibility’ of their products, processes and people. Industry 4.0, will become much more relevant than before!
